Man suffers heart attack in Trenton police custody, lawsuit alleges

TRENTON — After repeated requests for his medication, a man locked up by city police suffered a heart attack, according to a civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court.

Abdullah Rasheed, of the 100 block of North Hermitage Avenue, was taken into custody by Trenton police on April 21, 2011, a month after he underwent open-heart surgery, the lawsuit states.

His wife allegedly dropped off his prescribed Nitroglycerin pills, which are designed to prevent the reoccurrence of heart attacks, the day he was arrested.

Rasheed requested on a number of occasions to be administered his heart medication, but for four straight days he was denied by the officers, court records indicate.

Advertisement

The result — on April 25, 2011 Rasheed suffered another heart attack along with other injuries, leading to permanent damages, according to the civil complaint.

The Trenton Police Department, and officers Bey and Blakely, who Rasheed claimed to have asked repeatedly for the medication, are all named in the suit.

Rasheed’s attorney, Ryan S. Johnston, said in an email that the Trenton Police Department’s conduct is “outrageous.”

“The entire department is entrusted as civil servants of the State of New Jersey and the great city of Trenton to protect and serve all citizens, including, most importantly, those whom they have arrested and detained, such as Mr. Rasheed,” the attorney for Robbinsville-based Lance Brown and Associates stated. “To blatantly and willfully deny Mr. Rasheed his heart medication for four straight days is repugnant behavior which should not and cannot be tolerated by civil servants in a civil society.”

Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said both officers named in the civil complaint were police aides at the time of the incident.

He did not know their first names, but said Bey is no longer employed with the Trenton Police Department and that Blakely is still a city police aide.

Rivera, who took over the department a year after the incident, said the allegations are serious.

“There is no internal investigation on file under Abdullah Rasheed,” the police director said. “If in fact there was not one conducted, I would be obligated to conduct a thorough investigation.”

This is not the first time that Trenton police had a medical issue with a person in custody.

In January 2011, Kenneth Howard, 55, was found dead in his cell at the city police department’s North Clinton Avenue headquarters. The medical examiner’s office determined he died from chronic liver failure due to cirrhosis of the liver.

A city police officer and two police aides faced charges in connection with the death for tampering with public records, but the charges were later dropped, according to published reports.

Rasheed is seeking compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages, and any other relief that the court seems just and reasonable.